1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a utility vehicle, and particularly to a storage box storing engine equipment such as an air cleaner of the engine, an air intake duct of the engine, and a battery.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An exemplary storage box in a conventional utility vehicle includes a box body having a substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape and storing equipment and a lid configured to open and close an opening provided at a side surface of the box body, and an opening provided at the top surface of the box body is covered with a bottom plate of a cargo bed or a seat of the utility vehicle. A sealing member is provided between the bottom plate and the opening at the top surface of the box body, so that water, dust, and the like do not enter the storage box from outside. Especially in order to prevent an engine from sucking water, dust, and the like, the storage box of the utility vehicle accommodates an air cleaner of an engine and air in the storage box is imported through an air inlet of the air cleaner. The storage box having a high sealing property also stores other equipment necessary to be protected from water, dust, and the like, such as a battery, electrical equipment, or an air import portion of a cooling duct of a transmission.
Though not a utility vehicle, in an intake structure of an air cleaner in a hydraulic excavator according to a conventional art disclosed in JP Laid-open Publication No. 2002-70668, for example, a storage box sealed by a sealing member accommodates the air cleaner of an engine and air is supplied from outside the storage box through an air intake duct to the air cleaner.
The sealing member provided between the opening and the bottom plate of the cargo bed or the seat of the utility vehicle requires a high material cost. The opening provided at the top surface or the side surface of the box body in the conventional utility vehicle needs to have at least a constant width because equipment in the storage box is checked or maintained through the opening. A clearance between the bottom plate and the opening cannot be decreased because there is no design flexibility with restriction by the position or the shape of the bottom plate of the cargo bed or the seat. The clearance thus needs to be filled with a large amount of the sealing member. The sealing member then fails to be decreased in amount of use, and the material cost is not decreased. Use of such a large amount of the sealing member leads to an unstable sealing property.